After a bit of adversity with a previous less-than-ethical contractor they hired me to finish their kitchen that had been gutted and mostly abandoned. D&K had a beautiful and very eloquently communicated vision of what they desired their kitchen to be, and once we teamed up we began to bring it to fruition. I assembled and installed their prefab base and upper/wall cabinets and trimmed them out. Part of the base cabinet arrangement was their island which I framed and an electrician wired up. After inspection I skinned the Island walls and completed installation of their fantastic island top made of reclaimed/recycled bowling lane wood: all of those great times and happy vibes at the bowling alley will live on right in the middle of their kitchen!
We cut to dimension and sanded the island top down to 220 grit, then applied stain and two coats of ultimate-durability oil based semi-gloss polyurethane finish.
With two other pieces of bowling lane, I crafted and installed floating shelves. In my shop I cut them down to dimension, routed channels, epoxy-inlaid supportive hardware and sanded them to baby’s-butt smooth with 320 grit sandpaper. I then applied matching stain and finished with topcoat. The inlaid hardware consisted of a 3/4″ i.d. schedule 40 black steel pipe. I “tapped” and screwed 3/4″ threaded rod into the wall studs, using a channel cut into the rods with a 4″ angle grinder. This channel allowed the rod to “self-tap” in place, and with the selected materials, each rod/stud combo could hold +250lbs. The shelves slip right onto the threaded rods via the inlaid pipes. Placement was critical, and installation was a bit nerve-racking while tapping the shelves closer to the wall 1/8″ at a time with blocks and a 2lb sledge. The finished product is very cool and I am incredibly proud and D&K are ecstatic about the look. To top it all off I replaced the window trim with Hemlock stained the same as the shelves and island.
Huge learning experience, tremendous honor and a sincere pleasure working for Darian and Kaisa. Olympia, WA; May/June 2021